Dakṣiṇā दक्षिणा

A different kind of exchange.

Two hands meet in giving.
Which one is the one that receives?

I'd like to think about payment a little differently here. I don't want this work flattened into a transaction, or care turned into a service with a price.

So in place of a fixed fee, I ask for dakṣiṇā, an ancient Sanskrit word (dhuk-shi-nah ) for an offering made in gratitude for guidance. It belongs to the Vedic tradition, where the knowledge is held to be priceless and is given freely; the dakṣiṇā is not payment for it, but a symbolic gesture of the recipient's gratitude, a way of honoring the work rather than settling a debt.

What I offer is not mine alone. It rests on understanding shaped over millennia by many gifted teachers, and I hold it as a priceless privilege, to be given freely. You give what feels true, enough to honor the work and true to what you can genuinely offer. A modest gift given wholeheartedly can hold as much as a large one. Less a bill to pay, more a way of saying this mattered, and I trust you to know what that's worth.

A place to start

If you'd like a reference point

If it helps to have a sense of what people charge for this kind of one-on-one work, the range varies widely; you can see more here. I consider a fee in that range a genuinely sustainable wage for work like this.

It is a reference, not a requirement. If a smaller offering is what is true for you, please give that; I would far rather you be here.

Let's talk it through →